Internship Blog - click on Title to read full Blog and see Photos

Don't tell the bears, I'm stuck!

Author:
Matt Southwell
Host Vessel:
USCGC Healy

My second week on the USCGC Healy has drawn to a close with even more great learning experiences and moments of awe!

It began with us on-station and hard at work with the mooring retrievals. The Woods Hole science party had now fallen into a rhythm and began to really crank through the long days of deck work recovering and deftly securing the instrumentation of the deep sea moorings. We in turn continued with our twice daily CTD casts, also finding our own swing. With each cast, I became more and more comfortable with the software and the routines involved with prepping, cleaning and storing the rosette. We did receive word from the Scripps Institute that because we were not firing any of the Niskin bottles (used for collecting water samples) we should remove them from the carousel. This would save any needless stress and strain placed upon them when descending to significant depth. Since most of our casts were done in 3500 to 4000 meters, we complied and removed them. We then had to place three 100 pound weights on the cage to compensate for the missing Niskin bottles. Sending it down too light could cause it to tumble and tangle in the winch wire, so the addition of these weights would avert any such calamity.

This was also were I encountered the fantastic sense of humor of my coastguard shipmates! During a certain evening CTD cast, they secured a rubber chicken (we named him, Steve…., I don’t know why) to the cage and sent him down 3900 meters. Steve happily came back to us unharmed. It made for a fantastic photo that I will forever treasure. The whole CTD crew are an awesome group of people and have really added loads of laughter to all of the learning that I have done. Apparently, another tradition I was able to participate in, was the “cup cast”. This occurs when the entire crew decorates 20 oz. cups and then secures them in a dive bag to be sent down to the depths. Cups colored with names, hand drawn flags, messages, you name it, become compressed at those depths. Reduced to the size of a shot glass is how the once-20 oz. cups emerged from the dark ocean floor. With all their glorious artwork intact and unmarred. I guess they make fine Christmas tree ornaments. It easily made for the most colorful CTD cast I’d ever worked on. Like I said, a truly great group of people.

Week two also saw my first project come to full fruition. I did vaguely mention these projects in my previous blog installment, but allow me to elaborate on the first of these. The week past, Mike Coons (one of my supervising techs) had assigned me a project where I would install a float switch/alarm in the overflow sink of the ships Flow Through system. The Flow Through system is common on many ships and is basically (so my mom will be able to read this) where a ship intakes sea water and pipes it through a series of sensor instrumentation, such as: a Fluorometer (measures chlorophyll and phosphorus), an air-seawater equilibrator (a holding tank for the PCO2 system), a dissolved O2 sensor (oxygen) and a flowmeter. These all provide real-time water condition data constantly to the lab. Water flows through these sensors and spills into a large 6 foot trough, which resembles an elongated industrial wash sink.

The problem with this set up is that water is constantly running through the system at a relatively high volume and once the ship enters the arctic, there is a potential for it to turn into slurry. Even though it is running swiftly, as it cycles through, it often slows down enough in a section called the de-bubbler where it may quickly solidify. This in turn can clog the system causing the slurry to build up in the sink and eventually leading to a spill-over into the hallway. The float switch, by design, will trigger an alarm far before it ever reaches the point of flood and give the technician time to remedy the impediment.

I wish to note that when installing the termination strip into the control box some considerable modification to the plastic had to be performed. This required the use of a Dremel which is, next to a soldering iron, my favorite tool of all time!

So after wiring in a converter to step the voltage down from 10 to 5 volts and also adding a pull-down resistor to the original circuit design, it was time to permanently install the float switch into the sink. Now, for the layman, this could best be described as taking a small version of the float you would see in your own toilet tank and bolting it to the side of the wash sink in your basement. (Providing you have a basement. But I think you know what I mean.) This was easier said than done. This part of the project fought me every step of the way. The cordless drill I grabbed did not have the proper bit or the power to penetrate the aluminum sheet splashboard that attached to the wall. After swapping out for the proper drill and bit, I easily punched holes in it and was able to fit the bolts. However, securing the bolts was a completely different story. If I had any moments of this internship on video, this would definitely be in the comedy section. After carefully choosing the materials and meticulously measuring everything, I somehow managed to get my arm stuck in between the aluminum sheet backboard and the unistrut of the bulkhead!!! Yes. It was a very tight fit and I had cleverly worked my arm back there and had no trouble securing the bolts. However, during this, I had unwittingly wriggled my arm in there so far that neither my elbow nor wrist could seem to remember which way to bend in reverse. Removing it was going to be quite a trick. Now, it was only stuck for a couple of minutes but with that section of hallway being the main thoroughfare from the labs to the galley and cabin ladders, it seemed like an eternity. I was very visible. The last thing I wanted was everyone strolling by snickering at the intern! I actually played it very cool and made it look like it was part of the task, but inside my head, I wanted to crawl in a hole. As the clock ticked, I patiently, covertly choreographed it free of it's entrapment. And with that, the USCGC Healy had a new float switch. The next day, Mike received the coding from STARC and our display in the lab had a new warning light!! Project successfully completed! Leaving only a tiny dent in my ego. And this is how we learn, right? Absolutely.

Last Wednesday morning, I had just rolled out of my rack when the ship piped, “Two polar bears off the port rail!!” I excitedly grabbed my boots and threw them on. I started out the door and realized I forgot my phone (for pictures), so I retrieved it. I started out the door and realized, I wasn’t wearing pants, so I kicked off my boots and threw on some pants. With boots back on, I headed out to the rail and there, swimming beside the ship were a mother and her cub! Incredible!!! I could not believe my eyes. Breakfast had just been served so I am assuming they smelled food and approached the ship. I’ve seen so many new and astounding things on this cruise but this took the cake. Polar bears in the wild. I’ve only seen them on television. They were now moving away from the Healy but apparently somewhere between my phone retrieval and my pants they were once right beside the ship!! I snapped so many pictures and then just watched them in awe. Everyone was. In all the surrounding conversation I suddenly heard someone say, “They won’t make it.” My elation immediately crashed into an awful gut twist when I realized we were out almost 250 miles from any land and about 150 from the ice. What were they doing out here so far? I sadly watched them turn and head away from the vessel. Like a somber parting glance, the mother looked over her shoulder one more time and swam away. Cub in tow. It impacted me heavily. In all my life I’ve never watched a creature so resolutely turn and head for impending doom. All day long I had the worst feeling. Until at dinner, I spoke with one of the science party who obviously knew a lot more about polar bears than I and he assured me that not only are they incredibly buoyant but they’re also known to swim hundreds of miles. I do know that bears are formidable, stout creatures. And being who I am, I simply chose to believe that they made it and are enjoying a meal of seal meat and doing what makes polar bears happy. The gift of seeing them in their element was just too amazing for me to think otherwise.

A truly profound week indeed.

Matt man what a great experience. You rock love the blog
Captain Spencer

This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant Numbers DRL/ITEST 1312333 and DUE/ATE 1104310. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.